Follow That Cat!

When Sockington (with Help from His Owner) Tweets, More Than 1.5 Million People Tune in

@SOCKINGTON: YES THAT IS RIGHT PEOPLE MAGAZINE IS HERE FOR A PHOTO SHOOTplease get one of my good side WHO AM I KIDDING ALL SIDES ARE GOOD HERE 7:37 AM Mar 29th

APRIL 5 @sockington: "Unsure which is better windowsill or couch Obviously a sleep test is in order Be back soon... zzzzzzz."

People often wonder what pets are thinking. No more: Sockington, a 6-year-old former stray from Waltham, Mass., helpfully records his (largely unpunctuated) musings on Twitter. And what's on an average house cat's mind? Mostly what you'd expect: eating, napping and feeling superior to his human companion-in this case Jason Scott, a historian, to whom Sockington has outsourced the tedium of actually typing.

"Socks has an extremely strong personality," says Scott, 39, whom Sockington calls "Fatty" online. An early Twitter adopter who began his cat's page in 2007, Scott found "it wasn't hard to make Sockington's real life into stories." What he didn't expect is how many people would read them. Yet as of mid-April, Sockington has 1.5 million followers-nearly three times as many as Tom Cruise!-making him the most-read pet on the site. Fans have written love letters, started a club (Socks Army) and composed tribute songs ("Sockington, I got your back"). But so far Scott has resisted turning his cat into a cash cow. "We've been contacted by agents. But I'd rather people say, 'Remember Sockington the cat?' Rather than: 'Remember Sockington? He was really good until that book.'" Sockington too has stayed true to himself, despite his fame. Proof: FEB 26 @sockington: This sudden burst of media attention is nice and all but let us focus on the issues folks For example I still lack a bed made of salmon.